And where were her schemes of marriage now?  Any movement in such heat was indeed scarcely endurable; but she would have moved from one part of the house to another a dozen times, and allowed herself to be tossed hither and thither like a ball, if it could have enabled her to save her dear “great Sesostris” from such hideous peril.  And at the bottom of all this was, no doubt, this wild, senseless business of the nuns.

And these Arabs!  They simply helped themselves to whatever they fancied, and were, of course, in a position to strip the son of the great Mukaukas of all he possessed and reduce him to beggary.  A pretty business this!

Heliodora, to be sure, had enough for both, and she and her husband would not forget them in their will; but there was more than this in the balance now:  it was a matter of life and death.

A cold shudder ran through her at the thought; and her fears were only too well founded:  the black Arab who had come to parley with her, and had finally allowed her to remain under this roof till next day, had told her as much through the interpreter.  A fearful, horrible, nameless catastrophe!  And that she should be in the midst of it and have to see it all!

Then her husband, her poor Justinus!  How hard this would fall on him!  She could not cease weeping; and before she fell asleep she prayed fervently indeed, to the saints and the dear Mother of God, that they would bring all to a happy issue.  She closed her eyes on the thought:  “What a misfortune!” and she woke to it again early in the morning.

She, however, had known nothing of the worst horrors of that fatal night.

A troop of Arab soldiers had crossed the Nile at nightfall, some on foot or on horseback and some in boats, led by Obada the Vekeel, and had invested the governor’s residence.  When they had fully assured themselves that Orion was indeed absent they took Nilus prisoner.  It was then Obada’s business to inform the Mukaukas’ widow of what had happened, and to tell her that she must quit the house next day.  This must be done, because he had views of his own as to what was to become of the venerable house of the oldest family in the country.

Neforis was still up, and when the interpreter was announced as Obada’s forerunner, she was in the fountain-room.  He found her a good deal excited; for, although she was incapable of any consecutive train of thought and, when her mind was required to exert itself, her ideas only came like lightning-flashes through her brain, she had observed that something unusual was going on.  Sebek and her maid had evaded her enquiries, and would say no more than that Amru’s representative had come to speak with the young master.  It seemed to be something important, perhaps some false accusation.

The interpreter now explained that Orion himself was accused of having planned and aided an enterprise which had cost the lives of twelve Arab soldiers; and, as she knew, any injury inflicted even on a single Moslem by an Egyptian was punished by death and the confiscation of his goods.  Besides this, her son was accused of a robbery.